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Friday, 19 December 2014

The Library Project - A Finish

Last January, Adrienne @ Chezzetcook Modern Quilts had a great idea for a monthly link up party. We were to pull from our shelves the craft books and magazines that we had been hoarding and pick 4 or more projects to make. Instead of thumbing through our Library, put those books to good use!

I picked 4 projects initially and then added 1 more to give me 5 to aim for. I managed to get 3 made from these two books over the course of the year.

This is my last of the 3 and I forgot to blog about him finished! I've written about my work in progress on this little 30 x 40 inch quilt here and here but forgot to share him as a finished quilt. This is Wilbur our Basset Hound, who apart from sleeping and eating (his favourite pastimes), likes to pose for photos.

So I had the bright idea of making a Ticker Tape quilt version just like the elephant in the Scrap Happy book.

I used scraps from the Karavan range by Valori Wells, as I thought the colours were quite Basetty, and things were going well until Gordon commented that he looked like one of those butchers cartoons showing the cuts of meat. Close your ears Wilbur, don't listen to him!

The process is to sew an outline shape, (I hand sewed with perle cotton), layer and baste your quilt sandwich and then add the pieces to fill the space (I used fusible paper) and stitch them down through all three layers. I preferred a zig zag over a straight stitch and added wavy line quilting all over. I love the texture it gives when washed.

I was given advice in our local quilt shop to wash first and then add binding and this worked out a treat!

From the Creative Quilting special edition magazine, I also made my first bag from charm squares which led me to tackle what I consider my first proper bag the Bye Bye Love bag by Sew Sweetness.

And I made a quilt from gingham charm squares too.

And tried my hand at free motion quilting clamshells and figures of 8!

Thank you Adrienne for a great project to work on this year. I tried and learned new things and completed 3 projects I am very happy with! How about you guys? Any inspiration or projects lurking away in hidden books you might want to try next year? I still have these two from my list to get to!

20 comments:

Aww, I love the quilt of Wilbur. It is wonderful. I think basset hounds are the sweetest dogs :) it just made me smile immediately to see the silhouette of one! A great quilt! Magistra13 at yahoo dot com Beth

Ruth I love your Doggie!!! So fabulous to see him all finished :) Thank you so much for quilting along with me this year! What a fun time we have had. Hugs to your fur babies and to you for the Holidays!

Congrats on making all the challenge pieces - I love that idea of doing projects from the bookshelves! Your dog is fantastic, so cool to have made something that has such wonderful meaning to you. Have a super Christmas!

I am so impressed by your Wilbur quilt. What an awesome job you've done! I want to do a dachshund one dedicated to my hero, Mattie. She passed away this past Spring. i still miss her so. She was a rescue dog who came to us when she was seven. Six years we had with this amazing creature. She definitely was a "rescue" dog. She rescued my son. And, to this day she continues to rescue me. I love your quilt!

Thanks Louise, Thanks! I was heartbroken after our previous Basset who died of cancer at age 31/2 so when we saw Wilbur in the rescue centre unclaimed we knew we had to go get him! They are such great company and this technique works for anything that has a recognisable silhouette - a dachshund would be perfect!